ST. PAUL, Minn. – On Thursday, September 2, Concordia-St. Paul opens the 2021 season at Winona State's Altra Federal Credit Union Stadium at 7 p.m. This article marks the first in a three part season preview series, with information about the team's offense, defense and special teams coming out early next week leading up to the opener.
 
Tickets for the season opener in Winona go on sale on Monday, August 30. More information will be posted online at the WSU box office.
 
WATCH ONLINE – NSIC NETWORK
All Golden Bear football games will be available to watch online, free of charge, powered by the NSIC Network, supported by BlueFrame Technology. Visit nsicnetwork.com/cspbears on a laptop or desktop computer, download the NSIC Network app on your mobile device or watch on your supported OTT provider such as Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV. Search "NSIC Network" and download the app for the league's full sport and team lineups. NSIC NETWORK FAQ
 
All home games will feature the play-by-play broadcasting provided by Dan Flanagan, the voice of the Golden Bears for over a decade. The St. Paul, Minnesota native studied broadcasting at Fordham University (N.Y.) where he was the voice of the Rams' football and basketball teams in the NCAA Division I Patriot League.
 
The season opener at Winona State will be produced by local cable station HBC.
 
DOWNLOAD THE APP
Fans can download the CSP Bears fan app, free of charge and available in the App Store or on Google Play. The app contains rosters, schedules, scores, stats, news, social media and more! Customize your options to get notifications to your favorite teams, as well. Search "CSP Bears" in the app store to stay up-to-date on Golden Bear athletics.
 
BUY TICKETS TO HOME GAMES ONLINE
New this year to Golden Bears is online ticketing. Buy tickets in advance and bring your QR code to the gates to skip the line! Friends and families who utilize the pass list will also be utilizing the online ticketing service while all students, faculty & staff will access their free CSP tickets through the service. Fans do not need to create a login, remember a username or password or download an app to purchase tickets, and tickets can still be purchased with cash at the gates. Find out more in the partnership announcement between CSP Athletics and HomeTown Ticketing.
 
2021 SEASON OUTLOOK
With less than a week until the 2021 season opener, and nearly two years since the Concordia-St. Paul football team produced its first winning record in seven years, head coach Shannon Currier provided an in-depth update on the state of the program as fall camp comes to a close at Sea Foam Stadium.
 
The program has experienced an uptick in wins each of Currier's return to the Concordia football sidelines in 2016. And although the two 2-win seasons in 2016 and 2017 were tough, the foundation for success was being formed, and there were reasons for optimism.
 
In 2016, the team was three points away from beating #23 Minnesota Duluth for a 3-0 start.
 
In 2017, although the team finished 2-9, wins in the opener and finale gave the team a positive start and a strong finish while three losses by less than a touchdown came in between to put the team on the verge of a 5-win season.
 
In 2018, the Golden Bears picked up those five victories and once again had three losses by a touchdown or less to put an eight win season within reach.
 
As the team continued trending upward, increases in wins become statistically more difficult. But the program pressed on, producing a 6-5 winning season in 2019 and once again showing the potential for more with three losses by a touchdown or less including an overtime loss on the road and a one point loss on the road.
 
"First off, our 6-5 season was a step in the right direction after where we started and then continue to progress from the previous year," said Currier, who enters his 10^th overall season at Concordia and sixth since returning to campus in 2016. "That's one of our main focal points: to find ways to improve each day, which is cliché because it's hard to measure in the moment, but by self-reflection and training your mind to find ways to alter how you do things and learn from the past while staying in the present allows you to get better incrementally."
 
He continued, "My main role is to take where we're at and keep building. There are a lot of variables that every program faces and must persist through such as injuries, the opponent you're playing, but I want to see us playing our best football at the end of the year."

With Coach Currier, the sky is always the limit and his optimism, work ethic and expectations know no boundaries.
 
"We place a constant focus on finding slight edges and small things to incorporate into the lives of our players and coaches, alike," said Currier. "We encourage character growth first including spiritual growth and other small habits that help our young men improve how they go about their lives."
 
"We believe helping these young men off the field transfers to better habits in how they go about their work as football players. They become more disciplined, focused and ready to improve every day. And it's not just emphasized with the players. I expect the same of myself and our coaching staff. When the guy next to you does the same to improve every day, collectively the team becomes better. We're looking at things like diet, sleep, studying the playbook. Everyone gets 24 hours in a day and we're trying to maximize our time and get players to adapt to that mentality, to be hungry and find ways to get better and stay motivated."
 
The consistent messaging from Currier and his staff was an immediate benefit to the program's student-athletes when the COVID-19 pandemic jolted the globe in the spring of 2020, forcing the cancellation of the spring season.
 
The program had just welcomed an infusion of Division II, Northern Sun quality talent following decisions to eliminate football at St. Cloud State University and the University of Minnesota Crookston. Armed with over a dozen new NSIC players enrolled at CSP and ready to compete during spring ball, things went on pause.
 
The timing was tough for a Golden Bear program that had just experienced its first winning season since 2011 and would graduate its defensive line, most of its offensive line, starting quarterback and top five wide receivers.
 
The news didn't get better, as the Northern Sun canceled fall sports just prior to student-athletes reporting for fall camp in August of 2020, further stunting the program's momentum.
 
"We lost some good players to graduation in 2019, and lost a few more during the 2020 cancellation. But we've added key players, too. It's a next man up sport and we've recruited well. We are expecting to continue to improve on the performance we put forth in the 2019 season."
 
He added, "I am confident people will see a better product in 2021 than we had in 2019, especially offensively. We expect to be more dynamic and score more points this season."
 
While missing the 2020 season was a setback and not a positive situation for anyone to go through in the hallways of the Fandrei Center located on the southeast corner of Sea Foam Stadium's footprint, there were some ways the CSP football program could make the most of a negative situation.
 
A program that was faced with replacing its starting and even top reserve defensive line, key offensive line starters, its top outside playmakers and signal caller just had a bonus year of practice time to build continuity, bolster recruiting efforts and learn the Golden Bear playbook.
 
Coaches would have additional time to evaluate how players fit into roles, students had additional time to focus on persisting towards graduation and how an additional year of eligibility could open doors to graduate school where a dozen members of the team are enrolled in graduate school.
 
Younger players had an additional year of strength and conditioning, even in challenging conditions in masks or small pods to limit exposure to COVID-19.
 
"From things people can see and evaluate on the outside, they'll see a team that is deeper, stronger and better than ever. We never stopped recruiting or finding ways to get better, even in the most challenging of times. Did we get better last year? Absolutely. Everyone had the same circumstances, no one played and we were all in the same situation. From the moment we were told spring ball was taken away (in 2020) until the fall season was taken away, we asked our players, 'what's the best response we can have? Let's respond better than everyone else, whether its recruiting or within our team – maximize every opportunity to improve each player and grow."
 
TRANSFERS READY TO MAKE AN IMPACT: CONCORDIA ST. CLOUD GOLDEN HUSKIES
Prior to the spring 2020 semester, the coaching staff was able to identify a plan to provide a new football home to as many St. Cloud State and Minnesota Crookston student-athletes as possible, with a laser-focused strategy that aimed at finding players who fit the program's long term goals while helping those student-athletes find a new place to graduate and complete their football goals.
 
The result was the addition of 11 from St. Cloud State and one from Minnesota Crookston in a 2020 spring signing class that featured 18 transfers and 48 total newcomers. The coaching staff continued to bolster its recruiting efforts with an all-prep signing day in 2021, but welcomed a number of additional transfers to the program following signing day including Division I impact additions.
 
"Through the last two years, all of the transfers we've added are part of our two deep or travel roster plans. A number of guys will make significant contributions this year: Jaylin Richardson, Brian Lankford-Johnson, Jake Richardson, Nathan Gimza, Robert Kraklow, Alex Andrade, Jonas McMillan, Joey Farley, Sarek Hoerth, Mel Jeudy, Kyle Moses, Luke Shepherd – the list goes on from there and impacts virtually every part of our roster."
 
The newcomers impact isn't just in the transfer additions, either, as two freshmen classes will mesh throughout the travel roster and two deep, as well.
 
"We have last year's freshmen like Conner Cordts, Cyrus McClure, Brayden Hilgemann, Caden Baarts, Max Giannini, Kahlil Robinson, Karson Vigeland, El-Osiris Jeudy and Sam Henson along with four true freshmen from this year's class that we'll look to travel including Brad Walker, Keron Franklin, Jahiem Arnold and Parker Dahlman."
 
Entering the 2021 season, Currier is clear about how to make the next big breakthrough, "we have to score more points, be more dynamic on offense and I believe we'll do that. To play winning football means to win special teams always, play defense and don't give up big plays, and run the football. Each week, find ways to improve. Make sure you're better in week 2 than you were in week 1, then make improvements for week 3 and keep that work throughout the season. We have to put the cliché of 'one week at a time' into action, find a way to escalate our performance each week and that part falls under my responsibility."